The 6 municipalities of the plateau

The hidden treasures of the municipalities on the plateau

The Pays Thionvillois Tourism team opens its history book to you and reveals the unsuspected treasures of the six municipalities on the plateau of the Portes de France – Thionville conurbation. Discoveries guaranteed!

Angevillers

An unfinished building lays at the heart of the forest of Angevillers. It is called “Hitler’s Bunker” and it was intended to be the command centre of the Führer’s operations. Hitler never got the chance to settle there because of the arrival of the Allies.

The particularity of Angevillers also lies in the fact that there are two churches… side by side. As early as 1360, a document indicates the existence of a small chapel surrounded by a cemetery. In the 1930s, the building could no longer contain the faithful, whose number had increased. An enlargement being impossible, the new church is built next to it.

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Fontoy

The current human settlement of Fontoy is the witness of the history of this city. In the XIIIth century, the Family of Fontoy appeared and settled in the castle that was built on a mound. This special position allowed the family to have an overlook on the whole village, which was developed all around the castle. Nowadays, the only remains that can be found are a tower and some pieces of the walls.

Renovated, the old washhouse of Fontoy, at the sources of the Fensch, today presents pages of the town’s history. Located in the heart of the old village, the Information Center exhibits remains of the Merovingian necropolis, discovered in 1990.

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Havange

In the past, Gondrange Hamlet located in Havange ̶ was composed of a single farm, the house of which was built in 1842 followed by a barn. In the XXth century, other barns and annex buildings were added.

In 1817, a Gallo-Roman altar, said to be of the seven deities, was discovered in an abandoned Gothic chapel.
It is now kept at the Cour d’Or museum in Metz and a replica is on display at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye museum.

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Lommerange

In 2008, a highly rare object was discovered in Lommerange: a piece of a carved tree trunk or a monoxyle sarcophagus (made of a single piece of wood). This very ancient object dates back from the Carolingian era. A laborious renovation was necessary as this piece of wood used to be stored in a wet environment and then put in the open air. It is now exposed in the Tour aux Puces Museum. It then became a very striking testimony of the human activity in Thionville area in the IXth and Xth centuries.

Tressange

In Tressange you can see two operating mines, including the Ferdinand mine, which is the last bastion of the steel industry in Lorraine. It owns the most modern will of the whole region by it stopped operating in 1990. It was under the threat of a mining collapse but the industrial wastelands were reclaimed later. The place now proposes to remind people of the past mining activity of the city thanks to a landscape restructuring by using wagons, steles and the former entries of the mines.

In the village of Bure, stop in front of its fountain-washhouse. According to legend, in response to the prayers of inhabitants deprived of water, the Virgin would have miraculously caused a spring to gush out in the center of Bure.

Created for the transit of soldiers assigned to the Maginot Line, the former barracks of Ludelange served as a labor camp during the Occupation. All that remains is a gate and pieces of wall.

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Rochonvillers

The large fort of Rochonvillers was built in 1929 and was up and running in 1932. It was considered as a high-priority and experimental construction. This building was organised into two units (life and war) and was surrounded by barracks, an electrical manufacture and the ammunitions warehouse. In this city you can find some picturesque outside perspectives such as four typical twin houses with their garden in the front of the house and their vegetable garden in the back.

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